1- The Opener

I am not sure why it has taken me this long to start a blog on travel, food, and the very concept of discovery. I don't really know why the creative quill has tended to go stale in the last few years. Perhaps it's something that comes with age, or, more specifically, exposure to the life's many realities that tend to bore the mind into playing a game of logic with the various elements that make up a day, or, a session of ring around the rosy with the powers that be that seek to subvert rather than inspire, conquer, rather than allowing for "benevolent assimilation". Maybe I had just become lazy, or complacent. Maybe for a time, I had lost confidence in my ability to write, in my ability to transform the "imagined" into something concrete, or, at least, something which to another may also transition into something imagined, which would then spur the person to want to make it concrete.

 For my inaugural entry, I give to you a photo of some Gelato I had in the Italian city of Sorrento back in April 2013. After many years of pining for a trip to Europe, it all finally came together last summer. My mother, my youngest sister, and I packed our bags, and flew halfway around the world, yes, to have ice cream, meet great people, take in some of the most breathtaking sights the eyes could possibly have a cup of tea with, and to, on the whole, refresh our respective spirits. I came out of that trip with more than I had ever bargained for. What is Gelato? According to Wikipedia.Org, Gelato is basically what Italians call their ice cream. The word had been derived from the Latin term "gelatus", which means "Frozen". Gelatus is also the name of the latest animated feature that's probably made you shed tears over the last 2 months, but I digress. Italians mandate that their Gelato should have at least 3.5% butterfat. That's a nice rule. It's somewhat artery clogging, but hey, coronary problems never looked so beautiful, and tasted so good. Located at Via Padre Giuliani 41 in Sorrento, Italy, Davide Gelato has been hailed as the "Best Gelato in Town" by traveller Rick Stevens. Not that I have that much experience with the tasty Italian treat, but, at least based on what I experienced, Stevens was right on the money. If I remember correctly, the Gelato pictured in this entry was some sort of chocolate and nut concoction. What it was rather chilly in Sorrento, I just couldn't help but pump more and more dairy and glucose into my system. When the food is good, you don't really consider temperature, do you? The entire trip to Italy was a bit like Gelato. The locations I was fortunate enough to have visited encouraged my loved ones and I to "soak up the sun" so to speak- to indulge, to displace our souls "as we knew them and where we knew them to be" and lodge ourselves in a happy place in between illusion and reality- the perception tending to pendulum from our extreme to the other at opportune moments. Gelato can come in a thousand different flavors, and Italy did offer me a seemingly boundless amount of things to experience and use as springboards for personal growth. Good Gelato is hard to find, and good food is something you don't mind waiting for. As a Roman Catholic, my specific "Gelato" site was the Vatican. I had waited so long to get there, to marvel at the splendor that is the seat of the Roman Catholic church. Last April 2013, with a banged up camera and over spartan effects in tow, I finally got it. I did hear angelic hymns in my head when I did step into St. Peter's and the Sistine Chapel. It was overwhelming to be in the midst of so much history- and majesty. It was an "exegesis" of sorts. It was a study of the life and times of the church- hallway by hallway, painting by painting, chapel by chapel.

 This, dear friends, is only the beginning. I made a promise to myself sometime in 2012-2013 that I would go see the world before my mental and physical faculties fall off the proverbial cliff. Watch out, mountains, icebergs, churches, hiking trails, shopping malls, train stations, food stalls, back alleys, and skyscrapers. I'm out to get you.

 MC